Knox Bible

1

… The Lord’s power laid hold of me, and by the spirit of the Lord I was carried away and set down in the midst of the plain, which was covered with bones.✻

2

Round the whole extent of them he took me, where they lay thick on the plain, all of them parched quite dry.

3

Son of man, he said, can life return to these bones? Lord God, said I, thou knowest.

4

Then he bade me utter a prophecy over the bones: Listen, dry bones, to the word of the Lord.

5

A message to these bones from the Lord: I mean to send my spirit into you, and restore you to life.

6

Sinews shall be given you, flesh shall grow on you, and skin cover you; and I will give you breath to bring you to life again; will you doubt, then, the Lord’s power?

7

So I prophesied as he had bidden me, and as I prophesied a sound came, and I felt a stirring, and the bones came together, each at its proper joint;

8

under my eyes the sinews and the flesh clothed them, and the skin covered them, but there was no breath in them even now.

9

Son of man, he said, prophesy now to the breath of life; give the breath of life itself this message from the Lord God: Come, breath of life, from the four winds, and breathe on these slain men to make them live.

10

So I prophesied as he had bidden me, and the breath of life came into them, so that they lived again; and all rose to their feet, host upon host of them.

11

Then he told me, Son of man, in these bones here thou seest the whole race of Israel. They are complaining that their very bones have withered away, that all hope is lost, they are dead men.

12

It is for thee to prophesy, giving them this message from the Lord God: I mean to open your graves and revive you, my people; I mean to bring you home to the land of Israel.

13

Will you doubt, then, the Lord’s power, when I open your graves and revive you?

14

When I breathe my spirit into you, to give you life again, and bid you dwell at peace in your own land? What the Lord promises, the Lord performs; you will know that, he tells you, at last.

15

And word came to me from the Lord:

16

Son of man, take two pieces of wood, and write on one, For Juda, and the tribes of Israel that take part with him; on the other, that is the stick of Ephraim, write, For Joseph, and all the tribes of Israel that take part with him.

17

Then join them together into the form of a single stick, so that they are united in thy hand.

18

And when thy fellow-countrymen would have thee tell them what thou meanest by all this,

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give them this message from the Lord: Here is this stick of Joseph and his confederate tribes, with Ephraim at their head; I mean to join it with Juda’s and make one stick of it; one stick now, and in my hand.✻

20

And while thou art still holding the inscribed sticks, there in the presence of thy fellow-countrymen,

21

say this: A message from the Lord God! I mean to recall the sons of Israel from their exile among the Gentiles, gather them from every side and restore them to their home.

22

And there, in the hill-country of Israel, I will make one nation of them, with one king over them all; no longer shall they be two nations under two crowns.

23

No more shall they be contaminated with idol-worship, and foul rites, and forbidden things a many; I will deliver them from the lands✻ that were once the haunts of their sinning, and make them clean again; they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

24

They shall have one king over them, a shepherd to tend them all, my servant David; my will they shall follow, my commands remember and obey.

25

And their home shall be the home of your fathers, the land I gave to my servant Jacob; they and their children shall enjoy it, and their children’s children, in perpetuity, and ever my servant David shall be their prince.

26

My covenant shall pledge them prosperity, a covenant that shall never be revoked; I will make them …✻ and give them increase, and set up my sanctuary in their midst for ever.

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My tabernacle over them; they my people, and I their God;

28

proof to all the world that I, the Lord, have set Israel apart, I that dwell apart in their midst for ever.